Month: November 2013

Tomorrow morning is the day I’ve been waiting for for almost 3 months now. I still can’t discuss it on here, but I will be sure to give a complete rundown of the trip when I get home on Sunday. Hopefully with LOTS of pictures!

I just walked in the door from class (where we were assigned a HUGE final project!) so it looks like packing is going to have to be done in the morning. Not a lot to report today other than the excitement of being on a 10 day vacation!

Today’s picture is from the last Girl’s Day for just Ashley and I – so much fun!

“Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity.” ~Bo Bennett

Cliff got a game for his birthday (last year maybe?) called Rocksmith. He begged and begged for the game and then when he finally got it he played it a handful of times and then into the grave of barely used PS3 games it went. Until today.

He decided to bring his guitar upstairs and hook up the game because we saw an ad that said it could teach you how to play the guitar in 60 days.

I’m skeptical…

But intrigued.

He’s been playing for the past 2 hours and I have a feeling I’m going to have to physically pry the guitar from his hands to get him to go to bed.

I would love to know how to play a musical instrument, but I just can’t see myself ever having the patience to stick with it. Plus, I’m just starting to love my nails and the instrument that I would really like to play would be bass (or piano – but I don’t have the money for lessons like that).

Super vain, amiright?

For now, I’m perfectly content with Cliff being the musician in the family. I think I would make a superb groupie.

I skipped the gym today, with a promise to myself that I will go to the hotel’s gym Saturday morning to work out (allowing me to still get my 5 days in this week). However, even without exercising I was still able to keep my calories under my daily limit, which I was super happy about. There were only a couple of times today where I thought, “I would really like to eat a double quarter pounder with cheese, dehydrated onions, on two bottom buns snack right now.” I don’t feel hungry now, which just shows me that it was more than likely just hormonal cravings.

I’m super psyched about my vacation that starts tomorrow at 3:30PM! I’m hoping that I’ll have so much to clean up tomorrow that it will make the day fly by. The hard part will be getting through my Visual Programming class tomorrow night. I managed to clean out the car when I got home from work, so all I’ll have to do tomorrow is finish packing. I’m going to get up with Cliff Friday morning and work out before Ashley gets here. We’re going to stop at the grocery on our way out of town to pick up some healthy road trip snacks. The next 10 days are going to be ridiculously tempting…two road trips and Thanksgiving…two of my worst enemies.

I’m determined to be prepared. Both hotels have gyms (and even better pools!!) and I’ve made up my mind that I AM NOT GOING TO EAT LIKE A PIG. However, I’m also not going to eat like a bird. The number 1 thing that I promised myself this time around is that I am not going to deprive myself of a good meal because, as I learned from Katie, I am not willing to give up to give up dinners with my friends for the rest of my life. I’m going to go out and make better decisions about what I eat. Looking at it that way makes me feel a lot more in control than if I said, “Meh, it’s just one weekend, it’s no big deal.” In the past when I’ve gone on trips like this I’ve used it as an excuse to eat with reckless abandon. This time, I’m going to show that food court who’s boss!

“If you want to be a rock star or just be famous, then run down the street naked, you’ll make the news or something. But if you want music to be your livelihood, then play, play, play and play! And eventually you’ll get to where you want to be.”~Eddie Van Halen

The only thing that I can think of is that I’m about to have a visit from my least favorite aunt. At least, I hope that’s the case…

Days like today can be so incredibly frustrating. I had a million opportunities to binge through the week and over the weekend and I chose to take the higher road every single time. Even with the cake Sunday night, I had one modest piece and that was it. I even made my mother in law take the rest of it home with her. I exercised four days last week (five if you count 15 minutes on the treadmill and then 3 hours of walking around shopping).

All day I did my best to focus on positive changes that didn’t have anything to do with the scale. I wore my new knee high boots to work (with a skirt no less!). I put on makeup (which I haven’t been able to do much in the past two years due to my horrible acne and rosacea). I even uploaded a new picture to Facebook with my new clear skin and contacts.

It worked and I didn’t have a complete meltdown over the gain this week. Now I just need to make it through this weekend out of town, 10 days on vacation, another weekend out of town, and Thanksgiving and still manage to lose 5 pounds by 11/30…

No pressure.

Cliff and I went to Flanagan’s with a couple of friends for lunch. I had one pretzel with beer cheese and half of a grilled chicken sandwich. I skipped the fries and the mashed potatoes and only had water. We went to the gym after work and then came home and had burgers (lean beef) and a single serving of chips (only about 550 calories total). I’m really starting to like the idea of a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner. It’s just so difficult to pack a large lunch and it still be fit to eat by the time our lunch rolls around. Maybe I’ll start cooking a dinner-type meal at night, but take it for lunch instead of eating it at home. Now I just need to get some recipes together that make good leftovers.

I’m getting more and more excited about vacation. I’m trying very hard NOT to schedule every single minute of my time off, but it’s proving to be more difficult than I had originally thought. I must be on my 4th draft of my shopping list for Cinci, 2nd draft of house chores, and slowly, but surely, making the longest Thanksgiving grocery list that I have ever seen. Maybe I’ll be in the full throes over the weekend and just set fire to all my lists and sit around the house with a bottle of {insert random alcoholic beverage here}. We’ll see.

Now I must head to sleep and have nightmares about programming syntax for the next 7 hours.

Sometimes I think my husband doesn’t know me at all…why else would he suggest I go back to school for IT?

One word.

Misery.

“Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A ‘you can do it’ when things are tough.” ~Richard M. DeVos